Physiological response of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L. ) genotypes to drought

Drought is one of the major environmental stresses affecting crop productivity worldwide. Climate change expected to result in a rise number and intensity drought events coming decades, so climate-resilient crops that can withstand this stress are high demand. There few genotypes cocoa where it tolerate water deficit conditions. The objective current investigation was evaluate effect on photosynthetic physiological parameters six (Theobroma cacao L.) with two irrigation regimes (100% field capacity 40% capacity) under greenhouse conditions at Cocoa Research Station, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. gas exchange such as relative content, membrane stability index, chlorophyll content were evaluated. resulted reduced rate, stability. All revealed significant differences for most regimes. Among genotypes, P.IV 19.9, which classified highly tolerant genotype, recorded better results all studied 40 per cent FC. findings study support classification these tolerant, susceptible. These may be used promising indicators screen tolerance cocoa. have role imparting Furthermore, selected drought-tolerant future improvement programmes